Blood-Vital for Life! -Conclusion of BLOOD AND YOUR IMMUNITY

A prime task of your immune system is detecting and destroying malignant (cancer) cells.  Could suppressed immunity lead to cancer and death? Note two reports. 

The Journal Cancer (February 15, 1987) gave the results of a study done in the Netherlands:  "In the patients with colon cancer, a significant adverse effect of transfusion on long-term survival was seen.  In this group there was a cumulative 5-year overall survival of 48% for the  transfused and 74% for the non transfused patients.  "Physicians  at the University of Southern California followed up on a hundred patents  who underwent cancer surgery.  "The recurrence rate for all cancers of the larynx was 14%  for those who did not receive blood and 65% for those who did.  For cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, and nose or sinus, the recurrence rate was 31% without transfusions and 71% with transfusions." -Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology, March 1989.  What do such studies suggest regarding transfusions?  In his article "Blood Transfusions and Surgery for Cancer," Dr. John S. Spratt concluded:  "The cancer surgeon may need to become a bloodless surgeon." -The American Journal of Surgery, September 1986. 

Another primary task of your immune system is to defend against infection. So it is understandable that some studies show that patients receiving blood are more prone to infection.  Dr. P.I Tartter did a study of colorectal surgery. Of patients given transfusions. He reports:  "Blood transfusions were associated with infectious complications when given pre-, intra-,  or postoperatively . . .the risk of postoperative infection increased progressively with the number of units of blood given."  (The British Journal of Surgery, August 1988) Those attending  1989 meeting of the American Association of Blood Banks learned this:  Whereas 23 percent of those who received donor blood during hip-replacements surgery developed infections, those given no blood had no infection at all.

Dr. John A. Collins wrote concerning this effect of blood transfusion:  "It would be ironic indeed if a 'treatment' which has very little evidence of accomplishing anything worthwhile should subsequently be found to intensify one of the main problems faced by such patients."  -World Journal of Surgery, February 1987. 

Next time: Blood-Vital for Life! - DISEASE FREE OR FRAUGHT WITH DANGER?

From the jw.org publications